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Elizabeth Smart, kidnapped in 2002 as a 14-year-old from her Salt Lake City home, was found alive after nine months. Her kidnapper, Brian David Mitchell, was convicted and imprisoned last year. Smart, now 24, is married and has devoted her life to lobbying for child safety and started a foundation to help young people avoid or recover from violent events.

Smart and her father spoke Thursday afternoon about their experience and recovery at the fifth annual Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center luncheon at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Dallas.

Lynn Davis, Executive Director of the Children’s Advocacy Center, said Elizabeth and her family’s recovery process, has been “remarkable.”

“They have an inner strength,” Davis said. “I wish there was a way to bottle it and provide it to other people whose lives have ended up tragically in similar situations.”

Here is a snippet of Elizabeth’s Q&A for tomorrow’s paper:

Your story shows that something like what you experienced – being kidnapped and physically threatened – can happen to anyone. Do you ever wonder “why me?”

People wonder why things happen the way they happen to me. But I’m grateful for allowing this experience to be a voice for victims and survivors everywhere.

This has made you a bit of a celebrity. How do you feel about that?

No one wants to hear about child abuse. No one wants to hear about the neighbor down the street who has 15 kids in his basement being sold. They do exist. It’s good to be able to have the experience to be able to have the experience to validate what I say. It’s not just a nice blonde girl from Utah who doesn’t have a clue as to what she’s talking about.

– Melanie Malone, longtime friend of Susan Loper, the Frisco fitness instructor whose body was found Wednesday in a wooded area near the Dallas North Tollway. Loper, 40, was planning to open her own Pilates studio next week in West Plano.